Cheltenham Musings 2

Sunday was our busy day with 4 concerts to get to in three different venues. The weather had changed and it was definitely a ‘big coat’ day. We made sure we knew where the Parabola Arts Centre was and headed for the main site for a cuppa.

After seeing Kit Downes and Deadeye we headed for the Giggling Squid Thai Restaurant wherein we were offered a choice of tables. I chose to sit next to the lady I had recognised from her hair style as we walked in. Having been allocated our table I sat down and introduced myself to Lizz Wright, for it was she. She helped me with the names of her band and agreed to a selfie. She was, obviously, hugely impressed with my knowledge of her career but managed to drag herself away. This meant that, unfortunately, she missed the bit where I managed to splash Thai Green Curry onto my only pair of jeans. She would have been even more impressed, I’m sure.

Wandering around the main site later we caught the irrepressibly cheerful Arun Ghosh on his way to play a set in the Record Store Tent and he told me about a BBC Proms Concert at Sage, Gateshead that would feature him and Yazz Ahmed. We were able to catch the last two songs of his set on one of our many forays into the Store.

After our last gig of the day (Julian Lage in the Jazz Arena) we crossed the main site again to the Bar Tent. Standing outside the Bar we were able to listen to most of Van Morrison’s set but were not able to tell if it was Happy Van or Grumpy Van on the stage. Having seen both, Happy Van is the best. We had been able to hear some of the early part of his set between the tunes in Julian Lage’s show as the soundproofing between the Big Top and the Jazz Arena was poor.

The beer on site was pretty good and only slightly overpriced. We remain confused by the beer plastic glass deposit scheme that was running. Under this you pay £1.20 per ‘glass’ with your first round of the day and then every time you go back for a refill you get a new glass. At the end of the night you put the ‘glass’ into one of the purple wheelie bins and pay a further £1.20 per ‘glass’ when you start again the next day. If you are fortunate to stay for the full festival you can spend £7.20 on deposits for one glass. The instructions on the side of the ‘glass’ advise punters not to take them home but I’m descended from Yorkshire folk……..

Jazz FM have a 3 hour long Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2023 Programme during which Tony Minvielle speaks to many of the artists and plays tracks from their albums. It’s perfect listening if you don’t mind the out of date traffic bulletins and breaking news announcements from last week. Dave Sayer